Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Miller
was interviewed by Lorna Bradbury, a literary journalist from the
Telegraph, London. He has written many novels; Ingenious was his
first, and the others are: Casanova, Oxygen, Pierrot,
etc. The novel he read from and discussed was his latest, Pure.

Jean
Baptiste is the hero. He is educated beyond his class, like a
superior servant. But he can't belong to the class of people he works
for. He asks Armand, the organist, whether he is of the party of the
future or of the past? Must look like the future. Hence, he buys a
new suit in green. He is a man fragile in his own identity. As
author, Miller, was interested in that. Jean is a man of reason, an
engineer. These props fall away and he is no longer supported by a
“convincing sense of himself.” Cast around him are people on the
edge of insanity. That is like Samuel Johnson himself, The epigraph
of the novel quotes the Marquis de Condorcet, “One day the sun will
only shine on Reason.”

Andrew Miller with KumKum at the Hay festival in TVM 2011

Miller
began reading, “A girl was crossing the road … a little
auburn-haired emissary of death … ” Lorna
asked how much research he did, since the cemetery become almost like
a character. Miller replied it is mostly smoke and mirrors, with a
little research to ensure he had not made glaring errors in dates and
geography and personages at that time.

Lorna
asked if Miller's aim with prose is to create the quality of poetry.
Miller said he liked the care and attention that poets bring to their
work. “I like worked prose that delights in beautiful sentences,”
he said.

Joe
asked if people in those times really believed that Reason had the
answer to all the problems of life – love, living, death,
suffering, etc. Miller replied that little change for the great
majority of people. But for a small elite, for the duration of a
glass of wine, things changed.

Andrew Miller inscribes for KumKum

Miller
said it was by writing six novels that he came into his own, and
realised what his interests were. People have a difficulty to express
their emotions and he didn't anticipate he would be interested in
that. His writing became more sensual (what it smelled like, what it
looked like, etc). Miller said he tries to have a strong sense of the
physical.

For a fuller account of the session, click below ...

Miller
was interviewed by Lorna Bradbury, a literary journalist from the
Telegraph, London. He has written many novels; Ingenious was his
first, and the others are: Casanova, Oxygen, Pierrot,
etc. The novel he read from and discussed was his latest, Pure.

What
led to this novel was a book by Philip Aris, Funeral Customs in
the West. It is set in a
cemetery in the middle of Paris which is being cleared. It is en
years before the Revolution and the Bastille storming. Clearing the
cemetery is symbolic of getting rid of the past. It is the new
thinking of the Revolution. There have been short-lived fantasies
even in the recent past of getting rid of the past, such as Pol Pot's
regime in Cambodia, and the Great Leap Forward of Mao Zedong.

Jean
Baptiste is the hero. He is educated beyond his class, like a
superior servant. But he can't belong to the class of people he works
for. He asks Armand, the organist, whether he is of the party of the
future or of the past? Must look like the future. Hence, he buys a
new suit in green. He is a man fragile in his own identity. As
author, Miller, was interested in that. Jean is a man of reason, an
engineer. These props fall away and he is no longer supported by a
“convincing sense of himself.” Cast around him are people on the
edge of insanity. That is like Samuel Johnson himself, The epigraph
of the novel quotes the Marquis de Condorcet, “The time will come when the sun will
shine only on free men who have no master but Reason.”

There
are scenes in which the physical becomes prominent, e.g., the
people's breath becomes revolting. Miller read a bit to give the
sense of the cemetery being the central plot and scene. It's like a
film director creating vast sets – Miller liked that feeling. He
began reading, “A girl was crossing the road … a little
auburn-haired emissary of death … ”

Lorna
asked how much research he did, since the cemetery become almost like
a character. Miller replied it is mostly smoke and mirrors, with a
little research to ensure he had not made glaring errors in dates and
geography and personages at that time. There is little surviving
history of the cemetery. Sometimes, it looks as f the writer has a
vast body of knowledge below the surface of his writing. But often
there is nothing below the tip of the visible iceberg.

Lorna
asked what does historical fiction give that history does not? It is
the ability to dream about the time and give access to the actual
people who lived lives that had all the ordinary things, like eating
and partying and dressing up and laughing and so on. It must be
interesting and convincing. Simon Schama wrote Citizens
about the French Revolution. The historian has to be faithful to the
facts and the source material. The only responsibility for a novelist
is: NOT TO BE DULL.

Was Miller's aim with prose is to create the quality of poetry?
Miller said he liked the care and attention that poets bring to their
work. “I like worked prose that delights in beautiful sentences,”
he said. Each writer has his own sense of an ideal language. Recall
that Baudelaire said he would not write a sentence like, “The
chevalier left his home at 5 o'clock.” However, there is a certain
amount of slack as well, so you need plain sentences as well.

Charles Baudelaire

Lorna
inquired if Miller wrote in a trance. Miller replied that people imagine
writing is a head activity, but it is also a whole body activity, and
it is important to keep yourself well-grounded.

Joe
asked if people in those times really believed that Reason had the
answer to all the problems of life – love, living, death,
suffering, etc. Miller replied that little change for the great
majority of people. But for a small elite, for the duration of a
glass of wine, things changed. It is wonderful to have instability,
“Let shine this bright light onto all things.” Big ideas appear.
The whole idea of Reason and so on is on the Web.

What
about drafts of the book? Well, said Miller, the first draft is what
came to you in a quietly receptive state. But all first drafts are
embarrassing, very rough. Yet, there's a pulse there, and you cannot
afford t lose the freshness. Words may change, sentences recast, but
I want to stay in touch with the freshness of the first draft. D.H.
Lawrence would write a first draft, and lay it aside and write a
second draft – thus to preserve the freshness, but change the
language.

Rukmini
Bhaya Nair asked about madness. Miller remarked that madness comes about in people
seeing every day the opposite of what they believe. The best of the
French then were thinkers., who observed their own lives too. They
hoped the light of reason would illuminate their own emotions. What
we might be, versus what we are. Voltaire, Hume, etc. there wouldn't
be any age or Reason, but you could come out ahead by applying your
mind to any problem. Much of the struggle, was against the Church,
against the priests, against the control they exercised over all
areas of life.

Miller
said it was by writing six novels that he came into his own, and
realised what his interests were. People have a difficulty to express
their emotions and he didn't anticipate he would be interested in
that. His writing became more sensual (what it smelled like, what it
looked like, etc) How alive the room was to the light of a candle
which flickers and sways, unlike the steady light of an electric
bulb. His books are full of “the common experience of living in the
world,” but alive to its sensual possibilities. He made the
remark: “The author's collected works are his or her truest
biography.” Writers are not interested in themselves as people.
Miller said he was not interested in being anybody, “But by writing
I can be many bodies, including horses and dogs.” He said it is a
mistake to think of oneself as a single unitary being. There are many
writers in oneself, and accepting them conduces to sanity.

Are
you partial to some characters, someone asked. Miller said even
toward his unlikable characters he needed to have compassion. He
thought to name his least favourite character after a Tory MP he
disliked, but over time dwelling with the character, he grew to like
him in he novel.

What
about the intimate third person. Miller said he tries to have a strong
sense of the physical. He wants his writing to have a balance
weighted to the physical. “I like to hear them coming down the
stairs.” The ordinary things of life presented in this way
revivifies them.

Someone
asked why did the British not allow the Revolution to make its way
across the channel. Miller reminded the person that Britain had its
own revolution during the time of Cromwell in the 1640s. It was quite
revolting. The British heaved a great collective sigh of relief when
the king came back. There is in Britain a deep-rooted respect for
order. People took their complaints to Parliament, instead of taking
up pikes and staves.

Why
Joe asked are there no French words in the passage he read, for
example,for the French word for small shopkeepers. Miller said his
editor would have eliminated them, He had to avoid atmosphere
channeled by French words and rely entirely on English.

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